


Soon as I Get Home

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6030466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rafael wanted to shut his eyes and pinch himself.  Instead he just blinked too many times and stared at her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soon as I Get Home

Rafael sighed as he got off the elevator. Walking down the hall, he dug his keys out of his coat pocket. He could hear the muffled sound of music coming from behind his door and that concerned him. He knew he hadn’t left it on when he left in the morning, or he thought he hadn’t. Even if he had, Rafael knew he wasn’t listening to Mozart when he left. 

Cautiously opening the door, the smell of food immediately filled his senses. His stomach made a noise that was both familiar and offensive. Damn, had it really been that long since he’d eaten. What time was it anyway? Rafael closed and locked the condo door. 

He took off his coat, put it in the closet and looked at his watch. It was 8:42 p.m. Now he just needed to find out who was in his apartment. It might be Hannibal Lecter but that would mean he was going to be the main course. There was definitely already something flavorful being made.

“Hello?”

“I'm in the kitchen.”

He immediately recognized Olivia’s voice and it made him smile. Yes, he had a thousand questions but he smiled as he walked through the foyer and the living room. She was in his kitchen, dressed in his clothes, and cooking on his stove. Rafael wanted to shut his eyes and pinch himself. Instead he just blinked too many times and stared at her.

“How’s your mom?” Liv asked. She was stirring the sauce; everything was almost ready.

“What are you doing here?” Rafael spit the words out.

“I'm making you dinner. I know how busy you’ve been and didn’t think you’d have time to do this yourself. It was getting late, I was starting to wonder when you’d get home.”

“You could've called me.” He walked over to the counter, grabbed a tumbler, and poured Glenfiddich into it.

“I didn’t want to bother you if you were with your mom. How is she?”

“She's going to be OK. They're keeping her another night just to be sure; she's really tired and had some shortness of breath earlier. While I was there she was properly complaining that the doctor was too young for her to trust him completely so I think she's on the mend. My aunt and cousin are going to stay with her for a couple of weeks when she gets back home. That will be less worry for me. She told me my brother was there earlier.”

“I'm sure that made her happy.” Liv said.

“My mother is very hard to make happy. What are you cooking? What are you doing here, Olivia?”

“I'm looking after you.” She replied.

“I haven’t needed constant supervision since my thirties. Who's with Noah?”

“Noah is asleep in the guestroom. I brought the pack and play with me. He's fine.”

“It didn’t look as if a hurricane had gone through my living room. I had no idea he was here.”

“Hey, we clean up rather nice when we need to. Dinner is almost ready. I got a later start than I wanted to. Noah wanted mommy time tonight and I really wanted it too.”

“You didn’t have…”

“Why don’t you go and put on something more comfortable?” Liv went to the sink and poured pasta into a colander. Rafael couldn’t tell what kind it was from where he was standing.

“Um…OK.”

“Are you alright?” Liv stopped what she was doing and took a good look at him.

“I was expecting to come home to scotch for dinner and a restless night. I'm just surprised, that’s all. Also, you're wearing my clothes.”

She’d pulled the drawstring tight on the sweatpants and tied it. It didn’t look like they were in any danger of falling down. The Boston Philharmonic tee shirt that he bought in a thrift store two lifetimes ago was a nice fit on her. It was getting tighter on him by the plantain.

“I hope you don’t mind. I went straight home this evening and just had time to get Noah and our overnight bags. I figured I’d just grab something of yours when I got here. Have I…did I overstep my bounds, Rafael? I know you gave me a key in case of emergency and here I am invading your space and that’s probably unfair.”

“No, no,” he shook his head. “I'm glad you're here. I'm starving and this is much better than heating something up in the microwave and watching C-Span.”

“You're probably still going to watch C-Span.” Liv said.

“Yeah, I was gonna say…” now he was smiling. “I’ll be back.”

“Great.”

She watched him head into the bedroom before going back to her cooking. Now that he was home, Liv would do what she could to ease his mind. Work had been busy as usual and then his mother got sick. She was rushed to the hospital a few days ago and doctors said she had to have an angioplasty. If the surgery wasn’t done quickly they feared she might have a heart attack or need double bypass surgery. 

Rafael pushed everything aside to be there for his mother. That wasn’t easy with his schedule but he did it anyway. His sister couldn’t come from Savannah right now and his brother was apparently too busy to help. Liv asked if he needed anything but he told her no. Rafael thanked her but said no. 

She didn’t believe him though she didn’t want to push. So she paced around the edges, waited to see if he would call or come to her for something. He didn’t. So today she came to him and decided to make dinner. It was a small gesture but it made her feel better. She hoped it did the same for him.

***

“I feel underdressed.” Rafael said.

“That wasn’t my intent.” Liv tasted the five cheese rotini. She made it with ground turkey and marinara sauce.

“This is nice though.”

Liv pulled out his good dishes and lit candles at Rafael’s small dining room table. She turned off Mozart, changing the music to John Coltrane. Liv knew Rafael well enough to know that jazz music always relaxed him. He called it excellent Thursday night music. It was usually around Thursday night that he closer than ever to having a nervous breakdown during any given week.

“So tell me about your day.”

“Really?” he couldn’t help but smirk and then laugh.

“What?”

“I don't know…I didn’t see this coming.”

“So that means you can't tell me about your day.”

“I had two depositions, two plea meetings, the EADA wanted to have a talk with me. Watson isn't going to take our offer if it means going on the registry. I'm not taking it off the table.”

“That trial would be more than any of us can deal with right now.” Liv said. She sipped her wine.

“I'm not going to put the boys through that. There were a few who gave false stories but that doesn’t negate the three we can nail down. I may have to compromise but I won't do something that makes it difficult to sleep at night. Pedophiles don’t get passes.”

“No.” Liv shook her head.

“Is Noah OK in the pack and play?” Rafael asked.

“My son can sleep in a refrigerator box if it has a pillow and a blanket. I'm starting to think it’s a boy thing.”

“I'm a boy…I prefer a mattress. Probably just a Noah thing. The bed in the guestroom isn't that comfortable; I'm sorry about that. I've been thinking about getting a new mattress but I honestly don’t have many guests.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Liv shrugged.

“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, Liv.”

“I won't be. I’ll sleep with you.”

“Oh,” Rafael tried to clear his throat. The tumbler of scotch he was about to drink stopped three-quarters of the way to his lips. It still hung in the air. Thankfully he wasn’t eating. Now wasn’t the time to choke to death. Apparently things were about to get interesting. “OK. How was your day?”

“Long. I'm glad to spend tonight relaxing. Been thinking about a nice bath and then maybe a movie. I want to watch something quiet tonight.”

“ _Rebecca_?” Rafael suggested. He managed to get his wits about him enough to actually drink some scotch and put the glass back on the table.

‘Yes,” Liv pointed at him. “Perfect. So we’ll have a bath and cuddle with Hitchcock.”

“We?”

“I'm sure you need to relax as much as I do, Counselor. You don’t want to take a bath with me?”

“The thought has crossed my mind more times than I should probably tell you.”

Liv smiled, knowing she could say a million things but choosing to eat her dinner and let the slightly uncomfortable silence continue. They talked too much anyway. They talked and talked and talked and there was no action. Tonight Olivia wanted action. She wanted relaxing action, but action just the same. 

They were on the same page. They were often on the same page; rarely had to say so. If they talked too much tonight they would talk themselves right out of something so good and right. She wasn’t going to let that happen.

“This dinner is delicious.” Rafael said, reaching over to put his hand on top of hers. “Thank you so much for doing this tonight.”

“You can thank me later.” She said. “Tonight’s not over yet.”

***


End file.
